Bengal players held their nerves at crucial moments to outclass the opposition. Maninder Singh scored six raid points for Bengal and was ably supported by Ravindra Kumawat, who pitched in with five crucial points.

For Puneri Paltan, GB More scored nine points but didn’t get enough support from his fellow raiders.

More got Puneri Paltan up and running with two raids in two minutes but Bengal Warriors levelled the game with a tackle and raid point.

Akshay Jadhav got into the act for Puneri Paltan and scored two raid points to give his team 4-2 lead. More made a two-point raid as Puneri Paltan led 6-3 after five minutes.

Bengal Warriors never let the lead increase to more than three points as their defence helped the team together and levelled the scores at 7-7 after 10 minutes.

Both the teams approached the match with caution as they traded raid and tackle points at regular intervals.

At the end of the first half, Puneri Paltan held a slender one-point advantage to lead 13-12.

The second half saw the same pattern emerge as neither teams could gain an advantage. There was no all out inflicted and neither teams’ raiders could get going as we have seen in the past.

After 30 minutes both teams were level at 16-16 and it was anyone’s game.

A lot of empty raids were made as both teams played on the do-or-die raid strategy. It was Bengal Warriors defence that kept them in the game as they made a slew of successful tackles.

In the 36th minute, Maninder made a crucial two-point raid to give Bengal Warriors 21-19 lead. In the next minute Bengal Warriors inflicted the first all out of the match to open a six-point gap to lead 25-19.

Despite More getting two raid points in the last two minutes, Bengal Warriors held their nerve to win 26-22.